The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth. In the course of IC evolution, functional density (i.e., the number of interconnected devices per chip area) has generally increased while geometry size (i.e., the smallest component (or line) that can be created using a fabrication process) has decreased. This scaling down process generally provides benefits by increasing production efficiency and lowering associated costs. Such scaling down has also increased the complexity of processing and manufacturing ICs and, for these advances to be realized, similar developments in IC manufacturing are needed. For example, as semiconductor devices are scaled down through various technology nodes, thin film resistor materials, such as SiCr, NiCr, and TaN, have been employed because these materials exhibit stability and desired resistivity properties. For example, thin film resistor materials can provide low thermal coefficients of resistance and low voltage coefficients of resistance. Fabricating a thin film resistor includes forming a thin film resistor material layer over a substrate with portions of a hard mask layer, used during the fabricating, remaining over ends of the resistor material layer. The hard mask layer may be used for electrical connection purposes, and typically is a TiN, TiW, or Mo layer. Although existing hard mask layers for thin film resistor manufacturing have been generally adequate for their intended purposes, they have not been entirely satisfactory in all respects.